Jazzy Art and Singing Snapchats 🎷🎤

WATCH OF THE WEEK

Celebrities, they’re just like us! Indie-pop singer Ingrid Michaelson showed viewers just how true that is in her official music video for “Hell No,” which was filmed entirely via Snapchat filters. From classic filters like the puppy, rainbow mouth, and crying eyes to the more obscure panda, sparkly tiger, and cop, the video features dozens of short selfie clips of Michaelson singing along to the catchy breakup song. The clips were clearly filmed over multiple days, as they feature Michaelson in different settings, outfits, and hairstyles, proving she spends way too much time on Snapchat just like us. Check out the video to see if your favorite filter makes an appearance.

MARKETING BUZZ

In honor of the upcoming 50th Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland—the second largest jazz festival in the world—event organizers commissioned French artist Greg Guillemin to devise a creative way to announce the lineup. Guillemin has risen to the occasion, with 60 portraits of participants depicted in his iconic pop art style. But instead of depicting each performer fully, his pieces feature detailed close-ups to encourage viewers to guess the artist. The clever campaign concept is building buzz as well as fan interaction months ahead of the event, and with a lineup including Lana Del Rey, ZZ Top, Deep Purple, and Future, the festival already looks to be a successful one.

OUR OBSESSION

We’re simultaneously obsessed with and overwhelmed over “Player Two,” a video inspired by a single YouTube comment. The video reenacts what YouTube user 00WARTHERAPY00 wrote under PBS’s video “Can Video Games Be a Spiritual Experience?” about his relationship with his late father and Xbox. We don’t want to ruin the story’s incredible-yet-simple twist, but we can tell you that the comment garnered so much attention that interest overtook the original PBS video, resulting in a whole other video, “Player Two,” made in homage to his personal story. If that doesn’t illustrate the increasingly dialectical relationship between content and consumer, we don’t know what does.

IN OUR CARTS

Online platforms have been playing around with content monetization strategies for a while, but the question remains: How can you convince people to pay for content they’re used to getting for free? Enter the buddy comedy Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, a reboot of the ‘70s cult favorite from Legendary Digital starring YouTube heavyweights Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart. Set to hit online platforms on June 7th, we wouldn’t be surprised if Gen Vs are finally willing to pay top dollar for the high production, which, judging by the trailer, looks as well done as any film they’d see in theaters.

APP-TASTIC

The Internet is buzzing about Talkshow, the app that lets you “text in public.” Dubbed “the periscope of texting” Talkshow allows users to tune into to other users’ conversations. Conversations are tagged under certain topics like sports, politics, TV, and music. Users can even follow their favorite accounts and get push notifications so that they never miss an interesting conversation. The creator of the app said he was inspired by Taylor Swift’s posting a screenshot of her text message conversation with fellow musician Ed Sheeran. Further playing into our voyeuristic desires, the concept is genius and worth checking out, but consider yourselves warned: due to its spike in popularity, the app can get a little glitchy.

PROPS TO

You might remember designers Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman from their viral love experiment 40 Days of Dating. Their latest project, 12 Kinds of Kindness, brings back more of the graphic design and voyeuristic storytelling that the duo are so good at while shifting the focus from love to empathy. Based on the concept of 12-step programs, their project is a series of experiments that Jessica and Timothy carried out over the course of a year to confront their own apathy, tackling topics like fear and compassion in an effort to become kinder people. We promise you’ll get lost in this new kind of reality TV that makes you smile instead of wince.